Marita Covarrubias
.]] Marita Covarrubias was a Special Representative to the Secretary General of the United Nations. (TXF: "The Truth") She provided top secret information to FBI Special Agent Fox Mulder, assisting him while he investigated the X-Files. (TXF: "Herrenvolk") She actually worked with the Cigarette Smoking Man, but eventually betrayed him. (TXF: "Zero Sum", "Requiem") History Helping Mulder In 1996, X - another of Mulder's informers - was killed in a corridor outside Mulder's apartment. Before he died, X left a message written in blood - "SRSG". These letters led Mulder to the United Nations Building in New York, where the 'S'pecial 'R'epresentative to the 'S'ecretary 'G'eneral worked. Marita Covarrubias was also employed there, as the Special Representative's assistant. Mulder sent a file to the Special Representative about a farmland in Canada where he had found several identical girls that looked like his sister, Samantha, who had disappeared in 1973. The file also described the presence of bees and unidentified crops on the farm. Mulder visited the United Nations Building and met Marita Covarrubias, who told him that the Special Representative had reviewed the file but was busy. She asked Mulder who had sent him and he replied "a friend". Covarrubias told him that the Canadian farm had been deserted and that the crops had been left to die. She had also learned that the crops had been identified as ginseng but that no evidence of bees or bee husbandry had been found. She seemed concerned and apologised to Mulder that the investigation had not uncovered the answers he had hoped for. When she asked why the matter was so important to him, Mulder awkwardly replied that he had "recently" suffered some very personal losses and had come to the Special Representative's office in hope. She handed Mulder the file that he had sent to the Special Representative and stated, "not everything dies". Mulder, who had recently been told that "everything dies" by one of the dangerous alien bounty hunters, stared at her and wondered about her allegiances. (TXF: "Herrenvolk") , slightly reluctant to speak with him.]] The next time that she met Mulder was in August 1996. Marita was leaving the UN Building one night when she became aware that someone was following her. When the person called her name, she stopped and turned to look at her pursuer. Mulder's face was hidden in darkness, however, and she could not see him. He eventually made his identity known to her and apologized for scaring her. He then told her about a case he was working on involving the disappearance of four men in Philadelphia. One of the men had been found dead the night before, with an unidentified seed discovered in his body. The seed was from a rare plant found exclusively in West Africa. Marita Covarrubias claimed to have no knowledge of the case and told Mulder that borders had been blurred by people emptying bilge water into harbors, sending produce through the mail and frequently importing exotic species into America undetected. Marita declared that she was unable to help Mulder, but he accused her of being unwilling to assist him. He suspected that both she and the authorities knew more about the case than what they were actually telling him. (TXF: "Teliko") Although he had some suspicions, Mulder was unaware that a secretative group who called themselves the Syndicate were paying Marita for the use of her diplomatic power in furthering their goal to develop an alien virus vaccine before the Russians could. Marita did not believe in the Syndicate and eventually came to hate them. She consequently chose to co-operate with Mulder, knowing that he was on the verge of uncovering their project. (TXF: "The Truth") On November 25, 1996, Mulder consulted the FBI database to learn the location of Marita's apartment on the upper West Side of New York City. He went there at 12:36 p.m. and knocked on her door, Apartment 22. From inside, Marita asked her visitor to identify themself. When Mulder replied, Marita opened her door slightly but a chain still barred the entrance. When she asked him why he had come to her home, Mulder made it clear that he needed her help. He apologized for bothering her but claimed that it was a matter of extreme urgency. He further explained that two men had died in relation to a diplomatic pouch which had left Russia and arrived in the United States. Mulder was determined to learn the reason for their deaths. Marita finally unchained her door and allowed Mulder into her apartment. Nearly four hours later, Mulder was sleeping on a chair in her living room. Marita, meanwhile, was dressed in her nightgown in another room while she made a phone call. She learned that the diplomatic pouch had traveled an apex route to the Russian city of Norilsk, in the province of Krasnoyarsk. After ending the call, she walked into her living room and knelt down beside Mulder. She awakened him and passed on the information she had learned. Mulder was aware that Norilsk was just north of Tunguska and started to look for his cell phone to book himself a flight to Krasnoyarsk. Marita offered to assist him but Mulder initially thought she intended to help him find his phone. She clarified that she could provide him with cover details, such as a visa and a diplomatic passport. She told Mulder that the reasons she was helping him were because she could and because she believed in him and in his search for the truth. When Mulder asked how long it would take her to acquire cover details, she answered by wondering how much time he could spare. Mulder checked his watch and waited as Marita slowly walked back into the room where she had made the phone call. Three minutes later, Mulder had left her apartment. (TXF: "Tunguska") When Marita was next contacted by Mulder, he told her that he needed information on American prisoners of war and claimed to be in a hurry. They met in the Lincoln Memorial, where Mulder explained that the streets were crowded with traffic due to an Army parade and that he needed to know about a POW called Nathaniel Teager. Marita stated that she had no information on Teager but was curious as to what Mulder already knew. He told her that Teager may have returned to America and might be killing the men who had left him in Vietnam. Mulder already knew the names of two of those men, Generals Steffan and MacDougal, and Marita revealed that they were related to a recent news story about the disposing of South Vietnamese soldiers. The story was extremely embarrassing to the American government as it concerned their recruitment of men as spies and commandos, who were sent behind enemy lines and then abandoned to face inevitable capture and death. A three-man commission had disavowed the operation and erased the lives of the recruits from military records. Marita claimed that the three men could now be facing charges and that the government wanted them dead. When Mulder asked her why the FBI had been asked to protect the three men, Marita answered that the government was aware the men could not be adequately protected. As she walked away, Mulder asked her the identity of the third man but she would not reply. (TXF: "Unrequited") Contact with Skinner While Assistant Director Walter Skinner searched through Mulder's office on April 27, 1997, he discovered the file that Mulder had previously sent to the UN Special Representative. A note in the file referred to ground reconnaisance and a failure to find any evidence of bee hives. Marita's name was written at the top of the note. Skinner quickly returned the file to its place and searched through a Roladex on Mulder's desk. He soon found an entry for Marita Cavarrubias and copied her contact details onto a piece of scrap paper. While Marita was at the UN Building, she received a phone call from Skinner who told her that he might soon have access to the bees which Mulder had reported earlier but which had never been found. She later met Skinner at Payson Community Hospital, where they were surrounded by children who had been stung by bees carrying smallpox. Skinner was confused as to her identity until Marita explained who she was. She told Skinner that his phone call had inspired her to make some enquiries. Marita had learned that seven packages had been sent from Canada to Payson, South Carolina and she had come to that city to determine the contents of the packages. Skinner, who had learned that the smallpox-carrying bees had been transported in the packages, told Marita that she was already too late. Marita asked Skinner why he was in Payson, reminding him that he had come to her for information but had still not told her what he knew about the situation. At first, Skinner was reluctant to answer but he eventually revealed his theory that bees were being used as carriers in some kind of experiment. Marita realized that the bees had been in the packages. She asked if Skinner had told his theory to Agent Mulder, but he replied negatively. His failure to do so prompted Marita to suspect that Skinner was involved in the experiment but he assured her that he wasn't. Nevertheless, Marita urged Skinner to come forward with information if he knew who was orchestrating the experiment. The Cigarette-Smoking Man, working with the Syndicate, was actually behind the experiment. Later that month, Marita called the Cigarette-Smoking Man while she was in the company of another Syndicate member to ask if he and Skinner had been in contact. He answered that Skinner had just left after threatening to kill him. The Cigarette-Smoking Man believed that Mulder would probably contact Marita with questions and instructed her to tell him what he wanted to hear. (TXF: "Zero Sum") Incident in Kazakhstan in 1998.]] In early 1998, Marita travelled to a crime scene in Kazakhstan with a convoy of UN peacekeepers. They arrived at the scene in three trucks and found many burning wreckages of cars with charred bodies inside. The soldiers used fire extinguishers to douse the flames as Marita, wearing a black cloak, exited one of the trucks and began to wander around the area. One of the soldiers told her that the bodies seemed as if their flesh had been burned all the way through. Alex Krycek, who was inspecting the area with a Russian team, approached Marita with a boy and a group of soldiers. Speaking Russian, he demanded to know what authority she had to corrupt the crime scene. Marita replied in Russian, quoting a section from the United Nations Charter that gave her the jurisdiction to alter the site. However, Krycek interrupted her in English by stating that her authority was not recognized in the area, only her lies. Marita claimed that she and the soldiers with her were on a mission of mercy but Krycek argued that she, and the men she worked for, wanted nothing more than to provoke fear. When Marita claimed ignorance, Krycek told her to return to America and describe the disaster area to her superiors. Marita was unsure of what exactly had happened, but Krycek advised that she tell them, "it's all going to Hell". In Russian, he then ordered his soldiers to take the boy away. While the men complied, Marita asked if the boy had seen the disaster occur. Krycek had begun to follow the Russian soldiers but paused to tell Marita, "You tell them to kiss my American ass". Marita did indeed return to the Syndicate and was present at a meeting in their New York hideout on 46th Street. She reported that no-one had survived the incident in Kazakhstan but that forty-one bodies had been found, each one burned by an intense biochemical reaction that experienced UN Medics had never encountered before. She also revealed two implants which she had found among the incinerated corpses. When the Syndicate members began to postulate that the incident may have been the result of organized group abductions, Marita disagreed with their theory. She instead believed that an act of war against the conspiracy had caused the disaster. She told the Syndicate that Krycek had been present at the burn site with a group of Russian soldiers, probably acting on the same data that the Syndicate themselves had received. She was unsure of whether Krycek had been directly involved in the incident, but was certain that he would learn what had caused it from the boy he had captured at the site. She was also unsure of Krycek's motives. Shortly thereafter, Krycek telephoned the Syndicate. He knew that they were attempting to develop a vaccine for an alien virus that he called the black oil and wanted to trade the boy for their research. Marita and the Syndicate members later watched televised news of an incident extremely similar to the one in Kazakhstan, this time at Skyland Mountain, Virginia. (TXF: "Patient X") Deception and Infection .]] Marita subsequently went to New York Harbour and boarded the ship where Krycek was, the Uroff-Koltoff Star Of Russia. Krycek was attending to the boy he had captured in Kazakhstan when Marita confronted him again, startling him. He grabbed her and they kissed passionately. Marita told him that the Syndicate would be forced to give into their demands. At her suggestion, she and Krycek left the room to be alone. Krycek later returned to the room to find that the boy he had captured was missing. Marita had left the ship, taking the boy with her. Krycek was then confronted by a member of the Syndicate known only as the Well-Manicured Man, who was expecting to find the boy there also. Marita had decieved both Krycek and the Syndicate. She drove to a pay phone on Skodal Road, just off the I-90, and called Mulder's office in the J. Edgar Hoover Building. She checked that they were speaking on a secure line before revealing that she was aware Mulder had been at Skyland Mountain. Marita then informed him that she had been in the former Soviet Union, where a similar incident had occured. Gazing out of the telephone booth at the boy in her car, Marita revealed that she was with someone who knew that both incidents were connected. She also told Mulder where she was, instructed him to go to the same phone booth and to wait for her to call with more directions. Suddenly, however, Marita caught sight of the boy as black oil which Krycek had filled him with leaked from his eyes. Marita dropped the phone in shock, abruptly ending her conversation with Mulder. (TXF: "Patient X") The boy then infected her with the black oil. (TXF: "The Red and the Black") Experimentation Ultimately, the Syndicate found Marita Covarrubias on the roadside and took her to a medical facility. Over the next twenty hours, she was administered three intramuscular injections. As she lay unconscious on a medical bed with tubes attached to her, the Well-Manicured Man discussed her condition with a female doctor. The doctor had determined that she was not reacting to the drugs and that dosage was not a factor in curing her. The doctor believed that Marita's recovery was unlikely. The man covered his mouth with a medical mask and lifted open one of Marita's eyes. He saw a black cloudiness induced by the black oil that was now in her body, possessing her. The man closed her eye and looked up, as ten other male members of the Syndicate gazed down on the scene from above. The Well-Manicured Man returned to the Uroff-Koltoff Star Of Russia. By this time, Krycek was handcuffed in the same room where he had kept the boy. When he asked if the Syndicate now had the boy, the Well-Manicured Man replied that Ms. Covarrubias had taken him. The man had realized that both Krycek and the Syndicate were misguided in their alliances with Marita. However, he believed that she had been aware of the repercussions her deception would bring. The Well-Manicured Man confessed that the boy had been killed in another incident like those in Kazakhstan and Virginia. He suspected that Krycek had deliberately infected the boy with the black oil and was in possession of a vaccine against the alien virus. Assuming that it would be used to save Covarrubias, Krycek, who was still angered by her deception, refused to hand the vaccine over. The Well-Manicured Man revealed that Krycek himself would be saved if he surrendered the vaccine. Later, the female doctor injected the vaccine into Marita's blood, although the Syndicate had no idea how it worked or even if it would be effective. At first, the vaccine didn't seem to work but the Well-Manicured Man suggested to the Syndicate that they wait longer for results. Eventually, the cloudiness in Marita's eyes dissipated, an indication that the vaccine had indeed worked. When the doctor discovered this, she looked up at the Well-Manicured Man, who nodded in recognition. (TXF: "The Red and the Black") The Syndicate was actually cooperating with a race of aliens that planned to colonize Earth, although they were simultaneously attempting to develop a weapon against the aliens in secret. The black oil was the aliens' lifeforce but acted as a virus to humans. The Syndicate was consequently trying to create a vaccine against it. In their efforts, they reinfected Marita Covarrubias with the black oil and continued to use her as a test subject. (TXF: "One Son") They also wanted to punish her after having learned that she hated them. (TXF: "The Truth") Early in 1999, Mulder was at Fort Marlene Decontamination Center. In a deserted corridor, he saw Marita from a distance. She paused to look at him before quickly continuing on her way. Mulder ran through the corridor and entered a laboratory in search of Marita. While she hid in the room, she told Mulder that they were not meant to be seen together. Once she finally revealed herself to him, Mulder realized that she looked poorly. Her hair was unkempt, her face was lined and she looked tired. She warned Mulder that the Syndicate would kill her if they were found together. Mulder was concerned about what the Sydicate had already done to her. Marita bitterly recalled the experiments, referring to them as "terrible, terrible tests". Mulder asked if they were similar to the tests conducted on Cassandra Spender but Marita replied negatively. She informed him that Cassandra Spender was part of a program to develop an alien/human hybrid. The program had endured for the past twenty-five years and was in cooperation with the aliens. However, the Syndicate had never intended to succeed and had been stalling in their attempt to develop the vaccine. Mulder suspected that Cassandra Spender was the result of the hybrid program and that she was the first successful alien/human hybrid. Marita warned that if Mulder's suspicion was accurate and the aliens discovered that a hybrid existed, they would begin unrelentlessly colonizing the planet. 's help in 1999.]] Cassandra Spender was also at Fort Marlene, under the supervision of her son, Jeffrey Spender. Jeffrey went to Fort Marlene after learning that his father, the Cigarette-Smoking Man, was taking Cassandra away from the facility. In the medical room where she had been kept, Jeffrey Spender met Marita Covarrubias. She desperately pleaded for him to help her, as the members of the Syndicate were packing everything up before they permanently left the facility and abandoned her there. Jeffrey Spender nervously told Marita to stay away from him, claiming that he could not help her. Marita then offered to help him, as she knew where the Syndicate was taking his mother and how they were getting there. :At one point in this scene, Marita tells Jeffrey Spender "I know you". She also calls him by his first name, without him telling her any information about himself beforehand. However, Jeffrey Spender doesn't look or act as if he recognizes her. This probably means that Marita learned about him without actually meeting him before their encounter at Fort Marlene. Jeffrey Spender eventually tried to leave with Marita, but they were unable to get past security. As Krycek walked through a corridor, Spender called to him and alerted him to the situation. Krycek told Marita that "the rebels" were going to succeed because they had taken something that Krycek did not specify. He soon left Jeffrey Spender and Marita without helping them. (TXF: "One Son") Aftermath of the Syndicate The rebels were aliens opposed to the conspiracy. They had caused the mass burnings in Kazakhstan and Virginia, as well as a similar incident at Ruskin Dam, Pennsylvania where the boy from Kazakhstan was killed. (TXF: "The Red and the Black") They destroyed the Syndicate but the Cigarette-Smoking Man managed to escape. (TXF: "One Son") Marita allied herself with him again, although she learned that he was dying. He was confined to a wheelchair and attended to by a nurse named Greta. His need to smoke through a tracheotomy hole in his throat disgusted Marita. (TXF: "Requiem") , Tunisia in 2000.]] In 2000, he sent her, somewhat against her will, to oversee Krycek's release from a crowded penal colony in Forj Sidi Toui, Tunisia. She looked much healthier than when they had last met. As Krycek took a shower before leaving the prison, Marita told him that the Cigarette-Smoking Man was dying. Together, they traveled to the Watergate Apartments in Washington, D.C., where the Cigarette-Smoking Man was residing. He told them about a crash in Oregon, where an alien ship had collided with a military aircraft. He believed that recovery of the craft would help rebuild the project that had been destroyed by the alien rebels. Marita asked him how he could be certain that no-one had recovered it yet, but he answered, "It's never quite so easy". While Krycek searched for the craft in Bellefleur, Oregon, Marita stayed with the Cigarette-Smoking Man. As he talked with Krycek during a phone call, Marita heard the Smoking Man give assurances that the UFO was in Bellefleur but "hidden in plain sight". He seemed surprised when Krycek told him that Mulder and Scully were also looking for the alien craft in Bellefleur. After he asked for clarification that they were there, Marita heard the Smoking Man tell Krycek, "Well, they're looking for the right thing but in the wrong place... Find the deputy, find the ship." The next morning, Marita asked the Cigarette-Smoking Man why he had gone to the trouble of bringing Krycek to Washington and then toying with him. The Smoking Man feared that if Krycek was told how to find the ship, he would be tempted to sell that information. As Marita continued to ask the Smoking Man if he was certain the craft was still in Oregon, she learned that the ship was rebuilding itself and would soon leave. When she asked what would happen if Krycek found the ship, she was told that the craft held the answer to every possible imaginable question. She concluded that the Cigarette-Smoking Man was referring to God, but he corrected her that the myth of God was only alien. Marita stated her realization that the aliens were coming, but the Smoking Man told her that they were only coming back. .]] Once Krycek returned from Oregon, he and Marita visited Assistant Director Skinner and told him that Smoking Man was dying. At the J. Edgar Hoover Building, Marita relayed the same news to Mulder and explained that the Smoking Man's last wish was to have her and Krycek revive the conspiracy. Mulder's FBI partner, Special Agent Dana Scully, arrived and saw Marita Covarrubias and Krycek in Mulder's office. :This is the first time in ''The X-Files that Scully sees Marita Covarrubias and the first time that there is any contact between the two.'' Marita then visited the Lone Gunmen with Mulder, Scully, Krycek and Skinner. As the Gunmen discussed detection methods to find the downed alien craft, Marita announced that the ship was rebuilding itself. She and Krycek returned to the Watergate Apartments, where the Cigarette-Smoking Man was devastated that they had failed to locate the ship. Smoking Man suspected the possibility that she and Krycek had never meant to find it. As Krycek wheeled him out of the room, Marita stopped Nurse Greta from interfering. They watched as Krycek pushed Smoking Man in his wheelchair down a flight of stairs. Marita and Krycek descended the stairs and stepped over the Smoking Man's crumpled body as they left. (TXF: "Requiem") Defending Mulder In May 2002, Mulder was placed on trial to defend the X-Files after allegedly killing an apparently indestructible super-soldier. Skinner represented him at the trial and chose Marita Covarrubias as his central witness. However, Skinner initially had trouble locating Marita and the US government would not help him to do so. He consequently made an appeal for the trial to be delayed but his request was not accepted. Skinner was instead told to call another witness and he ultimately complied. In his cell, Mulder was visited by a vision of his dead informer, X, who handed him a note of Marita's address. .]] By the time she was found, Marita was the third witness to present a testimony at the trial. She admitted that she had used her diplomatic power in the United Nations to basically further the interests of the Syndicate and assist them in their efforts to develop an alien virus vaccine before the Russians could develop one. Marita was aware that innocent civilians all over the planet had been used by the Syndicate as test subjects and tracked using a DNA identifiers in their smallpox vaccination scars. Although most of the subjects had no knowledge of the tests, Marita recalled seeing Russians who had actually amputated their arms to prevent being tracked. They had conducted a similar procedure on Krycek, who, according to Skinner, she "worked quite intimately with". Marita explained that she had never believed in the Syndicate, or in their international conspiracy, but had been paid for her access. In fact, her eventual hatred of the organization was the reason she had originally helped Mulder. Marita also recalled that the Syndicate had experimented on her as punishment when they discovered that she hated them. The Syndicate had believed that all life in the universe had been infected with the alien virus, including a race of shape-shifting alien bounty hunters who policed the conspiracy for the aliens. However, the Syndicate had been mistaken in their belief and it had led to their destruction by the rebel aliens. Marita had resisted testifying before the tribunal because the conspiracy continued, only conducted by others. The super-soldiers, one of whom Mulder had apparently killed, were actually alien replacements. A vision of Krycek, who had been killed by Skinner, appeared to Mulder but no-one else in the room could see him. Krycek told Mulder that the conspirators would kill Marita if she admitted that they existed. Skinner began to press her for details on the identities of the supersoldiers and was surprised when Mulder insisted that he dismiss her. He commented that Marita was their "last best witness", but eventually acted upon his client's advice. Marita looked to Mulder and slightly nodded her head in thanks. Mulder returned the gesture before she left the court room. As she walked out of the room, she saw Special Agent John Doggett as he entered. (TXF: "The Truth") Addresses In November 1996, Marita Covarrubias lived in an apartment numbered 22 on the upper West Side of New York City. Her address was stored in an FBI database. (TXF: "Tunguska") In early 1998, the Syndicate took Marita to a medical facility where they continued to keep her. (TXF: "The Red and the Black") By early the next year, they had confined her to Fort Marlene Decontamination Center. (TXF: "One Son") She was eventually released and, in May 2002, was living at 756 N. Maple in Annapolis, Maryland. (TXF: "Requiem", "The Truth") Background Information Trivia Marita Covarrubias was played by Laurie Holden. A featurette about the character is available on the Season 5 DVD of The X-Files. In an interview conducted while the series was still being produced, Holden summarizes the character as "an ally of Mulder's, somehow tied to the diabolical Syndicate" and adds, "I don't know if anyone can really trust Marita. Because of the highly secretive nature of what she does, she has to be very careful about what she reveals." Referring to "Patient X" and "The Red and the Black", she recalls, "I had to learn Russian. Fifteen seconds of screen time of Russian that you think is just... you know, a piece of cake, takes hours." She recites some of the Russian that she had to speak in the episodes, noting that she remembers the foreign dialogue. In the same featurette, producer and director Rob Bowman likens Marita Covarrubias to Mata Hari, a Dutch exotic dancer and prostitute who was accused by the French of spying for the Germans during World War I. Of Marita Covarrubias, he says, "She's got her own agenda and she knows how to do it." Of Laurie Holden, he says, "She does a great job with it, recently in the 'Patient X' and 'The Red and the Black'". Marita Covarrubias was often derogatorily referred to as "Uniblonder" by X-Philes who believed she was a villainous character. Marita was the first female informer to Agent Mulder, although there had been early plans to introduce "X" as a female character. Marita was also the first informer who did not seek out Mulder, but was instead approached by him. Deleted and Extended Scenes A scene in "Requiem" in which Marita Covarrubias watches Krycek take a shower before leaving a penal colony together was originally longer. When Marita tells Krycek that she was sent by the Smoking Man, Krycek laughs at the fact that he was imprisoned because of the same man. Marita replies, "Things change. He's dying". Krycek tells her that he, himself, has survived imprisonment by the idea of killing the Smoking Man. Marita states, "He doesn't have long now". When Krycek asks her why the Smoking Man wants him, Marita replies, "To honor his last dying wish". Krycek glances sidelong at Marita, who stares back at him unflinchingly. This conversation somewhat pre-empts the later event of Marita and Krycek actually killing the Smoking Man. In the final episode, Marita only tells Krycek that she was sent by the Smoking Man and that he is dying. In a commentary track on ''The X-Files'' Season 7 DVD, writer Chris Carter discusses the scene. He says, "The introduction of Nick Lea's character, Krycek, and of Laurie Holden, Marita Covarrubias, was something that we could live without. We always thought the scene would be a very sort of sexy scene between these two characters who had grown to hate each other, who'd been romantically involved. It's Krycek standing in the shower, sort of brazenly speaking very rudely and brusquely to this woman, sort of exposing himself to her. But as an intercutting piece, which is what it ended up being, we could do without the middle pieces, which were really more of the same". Another scene in "Requiem" featuring both Marita Covarrubias and Alex Krycek was shortened. When the Cigarette-Smoking Man explains to them the potential to rebuild the project, he also tells them that they are like his son and daughter. In another shortened scene from "Requiem", Marita and the Smoking Man continue their discussion about the existence of God. In the original script, after telling Marita that God does not exist, the Smoking Man coughs hoarsely and says, "This is what men like Mulder fail to realize, even as he preaches it as the gospel truth". Marita tries not to show that she's shaken by this but asks, "Then what hope do we have?" In reply, the Smoking Man states, "To survive in a godless world we must be smarter or more powerful". Later in the script, when Marita and Krycek visit the FBI Headquarters, Mulder realizes from Skinner's tone and hard expression that he has been forced into bringing them there. In the final episode, Skinner voluntarily urges Mulder to listen to them. It's interesting to note that "Requiem" was written as a possible finale to the series. In the original script's version of the last scene that features Marita Covarrubias, after she watches Krycek push the Cigarette-Smoking Man down a flight of stairs, Greta shrieks and runs down the stairs to check on the Smoking Man while Marita and Krycek stay at the top of the stairs. Appearances * TXF: ** "Herrenvolk" (Season 4) ** "Teliko" ** "Tunguska" ** "Unrequited" ** "Zero Sum" ** "Patient X" (Season 5) ** "The Red and the Black" ** "One Son" (Season 6) ** "Requiem" (Season 7) ** "The Truth" (Season 9) Covarrubias, Marita Covarrubias, Marita